DIY Square Bottom Tarot Pouch

Sometimes you just need a tarot pouch! People choose to carry their tarot in different ways. Some, neatly keep the cards in their original box to bring out when they want to do a spread. Many carry their cards wrapped in a special cloth and in a pouch similar to this.

With the tarot often looked to for guidance in weighty decisions, why not treat your deck as the sacred item it is?

If you buy crystals, pendulums, and divination tools regularly, you’ll often have a small collection of velvet or plastic lined pouches at your disposal. These can be useful, but boring. For the urban witch, you might choose to carry your tarot cards in a more stylish and personalized way. That’s where this DIY Tarot Pouch comes in handy. It’s easy to make and requires very little fabric. Furthermore, this tarot pouch makes a great conversation starter, everyone will wonder where you procured such a cool bag for your cards.

This DIY will take about 30 minutes to complete depending on your skill level.

For this tarot pouch you’ll need:

(1) 10.5″ x 11″ exterior cloth

(1) 10.5 x 11″ interior lining cloth

Scissors

A sewing machine or needle and thread

Rope or extra fabric to create a cord

Set of tarot cards

Step One:

Take your lining fabric and your exterior fabric and place them with their right sides together. Pin the top edge (that will be the opening). Sew with a 1/4″ seam allowance and press the seam open afterward.

Step Two:

Open your fabric so that the wrong sides are facing up as shown. Cut 1/2″ tabs on the sides of each fabric, this will mark where your cord will go.

Step Three:

Press your tabs for sewing. You can do a double-fold hem or a single fold and keep the interior edges raw. I did a double fold because my fabric comes apart easily and I didn’t want any rogue string coming out the drawstring area.

Step Four:

Sew the hem so it secures the raw edge of the fabric (or not if you don’t care).

Step Five:

Fold your fabric in half length-wise to that the exterior fabric is exposed and the lining fabric is touching itself. Make sure your tabs line up. Pin the raw edges of the fabric together.

Step Six:

Sew with a 1/4″ seam allowance. You can do a larger seam if it’s easier, you’ll cut the excess off anyway. Make sure to not sew over your drawstring opening. Otherwise, you’ll seal it shut!

Step Seven:

Flip your fabric inside out so the exterior is touching and the exterior fabric is outside. This is a weird kind of double inside out. If you’re used to making bags, you know what I mean, but if not, I’ve attached the following video to explain.

Find the seam of the long edge that you just sewed (and trimmed down as much as possible) and pin it neatly.

Step Eight:

You’ll now hide the raw edge of the seam by sewing down that same section (called a french seam), trapping the exterior seam inside. See, the drawstring opening is still open!

Step Nine:

Turn your fabric inside out with the side seam directly in the center. At the bottom of your pouch, cut two small squares that are slightly taller than they are wide. I did around 1″.

Step Ten:

Sew the very bottom raw edge of the bag closed, excluding the squares. Then, turn the squares so the bottom seam is in the center and pin them in a straight line. This will square out the bottom of your pouch. Sew each side to have squared edges. ***I should add that you don’t have to do a french seam here, I just didn’t want any raw edges on my interior, you could totally just turn the bag inside out and hem the bottom, making sure to turn the square areas.

Step Eleven:

Turn the bag inside out once more and trap those raw edges with a french seam. You’ll do this on the raw edges you just sewed—so the bottom, and each squared corner.

Step Twelve:

Now turn your tarot pouch inside out and insert your drawstring. It’s best to attach a safety pin to the drawstring and lead it through the opening as shown in this video. I couldn’t find a safety pin so I improvised with sewing needles.

I hope you found this DIY Tarot Pouch useful! I’d love to see pictures of the pouches you create! Tag me on IG: @thornandthimble